Tim Peake spent six months in space, flying up in a Soyuz TMA-19M rocket (right) in December 2015. Picture: NASA

The European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, who went to Chichester High School, spoke after the naming of a new Mars rover last week.

He said: "It's an incredibly interesting planet. I'd love to go to Mars.

"However it is a long mission. Probably at least a three-year mission to Mars, to have a meaningful surface day and right now I have a ten-year-old and a seven-year-old so my priority is as a father, but give it another ten years and I'll be jumping on that spacecraft."

Speaking at the naming event, Major Peake laughed when asked which alien he would like to meet, but also offered a warning.

Tim Peake and the capsule that took him back from space to Earth

He said: I'm not sure, really. I mean, my idea of aliens is that we should be careful about wanting to meet them because if you think about what their ambitions and aims might be and you know, might not be similar to ours.

"But in terms of friendly aliens I mean ET was one of the first movie aliens and he was pretty friendly so let's go with ET."